MANILA, Philippines — Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno disclosed Thursday that the City Council of Manila authorized him to negotiate with the company of American billionaire Elon Musk for the purchase of Starlink low-orbit satellites.
“I hope we can avail of Starlink low-orbit satellite soonest. The best success story is in Ukraine when Elon Musk deployed a number of satellites in that country after its internet connectivity was destroyed by Russian forces...Hopefully, we can use this in the entire country,” Moreno said in a press conference in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
Moreno was referring to City Council Resolution No. 46 which authorizes Mayor Domagoso “to negotiate and/or enter into a contract with SpaceX Enterprise for the use of Starlink, the world’s most advance broadband internet system in the City of Manila.”
SpaceX is a space exploration company owned by tech magnate and billionaire Elon Musk. It is also a provider of space transportation services, and a communications corporation with headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Currently, it has launched more than 1,700 Starlink satellites in space.
The 47-year-old presidential candidate said the City of Manila and the entire country will greatly benefit from the services offered by Starlink, among the world’s biggest private aerospace companies, in terms of disaster preparedness.
“We are not unaware that there are many calamities in the Philippines, especially strong typhoons and earthquakes. And often the line of communication is broken like what happened in areas in Visayas and Mindanao which were devastated by Odette,” Moreno pointed out. "No phone, no internet. This is a big help from Elon Musk because it has a signal even with storms and earthquakes."
Moreno added that public school students in Manila will benefit from the high-speed broadband offered by Starlink. “There will be no more dead spots or lack of signal which affects the online learning process of students,” he said.
“While most satellite internet services today come from single geostationary satellites that orbit the planet at about 35,000km, Starlink is a constellation of multiple satellites that orbit the planet much closer to Earth, at about 550km, and cover the entire globe,” the resolution reads.
“Because Starlink satellites are in a low orbit, the round-trip data time between the user and the satellite – also known as latency – is much lower than with satellites in geostationary orbit. This enables Starlink to deliver services like online gaming that are usually not possible on other satellite broadband systems.”
Elon Musk's satellite internet company Starlink works by sending information through the vacuum of space, where it travels much faster than in fiber-optic cable and can reach far more people and places, Moreno's campaign team said in its statement sent to media.
Manila City Council Resolution No. 46 was principally authored by Majority Floor Leader Joel Chua, Acting Majority Floor Leader Macario Lacson and President Pro Tempore, and Acting Presiding Officer Ernesto Isip Jr.
At a meeting held via Zoom on Saturday, Rebecca Hunter, head of SpaceX Government Relations invited Pacquiao to visit the US to meet with the key leaders of the company and explore avenues where they can work together.
Pacquiao also brought up exploring other areas of cooperation with Elon Musk’s sister companies, Tesla and the Boring Company as he raised the possibility of using Tesla batteries for the jeepney modernization and the creation of a massive subway system using the Boring Company to decongest Metro Manila and other urban cities in the country.
The boxer-turned-senator raised the need for the Philippines to finally have its own communications satellite especially now that Filipinos rely heavily on the internet amid ongoing restrictions on face-to-face classes because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This technology provides various uses such as advancing online learning, e-government services, and disaster relief and coordination, as well as linking our OFWs to their loved ones. Our future needs this technology,” Pacquiao said.
Pacquiao urged Space X executives to also consider the possibility of establishing a launchpad in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao, saying "this would not only put the Philippines on the map of space exploration" but would also generate thousands of jobs for Filipino scientists, engineers, and laborers.
Pacquiao said the launchpad will not only cater to their Asian clients but would also enable the Philippines to launch its own satellites that can be used for communications, weather monitoring, topography mapping, environment protection, and research among others.
Pacquiao said that the presence of the SpaceX launchpad in the Philippines “will put the Philippines alongside other first-world nations in the next frontier which is Space.”
“The involvement of SpaceX in our country will not only bring in investments and jobs but will also put us at the forefront of space science. It's exciting, the possibilities behind this and what it can do for our country,” Pacquiao said in Filipino.
— with a report from Gaea Katreena Cabico
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“I hope we can avail of Starlink low-orbit satellite soonest. The best success story is in Ukraine when Elon Musk deployed a number of satellites in that country after its internet connectivity was destroyed by Russian forces...Hopefully, we can use this in the entire country,” Moreno said in a press conference in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
Moreno was referring to City Council Resolution No. 46 which authorizes Mayor Domagoso “to negotiate and/or enter into a contract with SpaceX Enterprise for the use of Starlink, the world’s most advance broadband internet system in the City of Manila.”
SpaceX is a space exploration company owned by tech magnate and billionaire Elon Musk. It is also a provider of space transportation services, and a communications corporation with headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Currently, it has launched more than 1,700 Starlink satellites in space.
The 47-year-old presidential candidate said the City of Manila and the entire country will greatly benefit from the services offered by Starlink, among the world’s biggest private aerospace companies, in terms of disaster preparedness.
“We are not unaware that there are many calamities in the Philippines, especially strong typhoons and earthquakes. And often the line of communication is broken like what happened in areas in Visayas and Mindanao which were devastated by Odette,” Moreno pointed out. "No phone, no internet. This is a big help from Elon Musk because it has a signal even with storms and earthquakes."
Moreno added that public school students in Manila will benefit from the high-speed broadband offered by Starlink. “There will be no more dead spots or lack of signal which affects the online learning process of students,” he said.
“While most satellite internet services today come from single geostationary satellites that orbit the planet at about 35,000km, Starlink is a constellation of multiple satellites that orbit the planet much closer to Earth, at about 550km, and cover the entire globe,” the resolution reads.
“Because Starlink satellites are in a low orbit, the round-trip data time between the user and the satellite – also known as latency – is much lower than with satellites in geostationary orbit. This enables Starlink to deliver services like online gaming that are usually not possible on other satellite broadband systems.”
Elon Musk's satellite internet company Starlink works by sending information through the vacuum of space, where it travels much faster than in fiber-optic cable and can reach far more people and places, Moreno's campaign team said in its statement sent to media.
Manila City Council Resolution No. 46 was principally authored by Majority Floor Leader Joel Chua, Acting Majority Floor Leader Macario Lacson and President Pro Tempore, and Acting Presiding Officer Ernesto Isip Jr.
Pacquiao also meets with SpaceX officials
Top executives of SpaceX also met with Sen. Manny Pacquiao, also a presidential bet, to discuss the use of low orbit satellites to provide cheap internet to the country and the possibility of establishing a spaceship launchpad in the Philippines.At a meeting held via Zoom on Saturday, Rebecca Hunter, head of SpaceX Government Relations invited Pacquiao to visit the US to meet with the key leaders of the company and explore avenues where they can work together.
Pacquiao also brought up exploring other areas of cooperation with Elon Musk’s sister companies, Tesla and the Boring Company as he raised the possibility of using Tesla batteries for the jeepney modernization and the creation of a massive subway system using the Boring Company to decongest Metro Manila and other urban cities in the country.
The boxer-turned-senator raised the need for the Philippines to finally have its own communications satellite especially now that Filipinos rely heavily on the internet amid ongoing restrictions on face-to-face classes because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This technology provides various uses such as advancing online learning, e-government services, and disaster relief and coordination, as well as linking our OFWs to their loved ones. Our future needs this technology,” Pacquiao said.
Pacquiao urged Space X executives to also consider the possibility of establishing a launchpad in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao, saying "this would not only put the Philippines on the map of space exploration" but would also generate thousands of jobs for Filipino scientists, engineers, and laborers.
Pacquiao said the launchpad will not only cater to their Asian clients but would also enable the Philippines to launch its own satellites that can be used for communications, weather monitoring, topography mapping, environment protection, and research among others.
Pacquiao said that the presence of the SpaceX launchpad in the Philippines “will put the Philippines alongside other first-world nations in the next frontier which is Space.”
“The involvement of SpaceX in our country will not only bring in investments and jobs but will also put us at the forefront of space science. It's exciting, the possibilities behind this and what it can do for our country,” Pacquiao said in Filipino.
— with a report from Gaea Katreena Cabico
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